Recommended
Manga/Anime
For these, the red print indicate that the series is ongoing. Unless specified, both the manga and anime are really acceptable. I generally prefer the English sub over the English dub for anime, but to each their own.
- Bakuman: a manga series about two guys writing manga. Oh, the irony. It has since been made into an anime. Though the graphics seem a bit odd, I did like the series overall. It is made by the creators of Death Note (below).
- Bleach: it apparently gets dry towards the middle of the series though, so it’s up to you; I need to catch up…
- Death Note: the series wasn’t that bad. I read the manga series for this. I hear the manga’s better. If you feel disappointed in the middle of the series, don’t. The ending will not epic fail.
- Detective Conan/Case Closed: I don’t have the patience to read the manga… the series is good but somewhat drags. It’s still not bad. I’m not that good with mystery novels/dramas, but Detective Conan somehow allows me to watch it with a bit of ease. Still, too much makes me think a lot about possible future events…
- Eureka Seven: a lot of action with a bit more romance than a typical shōnen series would.
- Pokémon Special/Adventures (manga): This series… oh wow, oh wow… so much more dynamic compared to the anime by far… it didn’t fail after GSC…
- Gash Bell/Zatch Bell!: Read the manga. The ending to the anime was terrible. It cut off at a bad place… the movies are ok though. The concept of this series was very well done.
- Fullmetal Alchemist: The manga and the Brotherhood (2009) version of the anime were amazing. Both are the same. Choose whichever form you want; they are both just… oh wow, so good!!! The original anime series didn’t follow the manga, somewhat disappointing… however, from what I heard, if you watched the 2003 anime before Brotherhood, you would enjoy that quite a bit!
- Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso/Your Lie in April: a great series both for the anime and manga. A short but emotional series about romance and music (mainly piano and violin). It’s a very encouraging series that pushed me to practice piano more, if only because of my passion for playing piano in the first place.
- Hunter x Hunter: actually “finished” in the 1999 anime series because, similar to Gash Bell, it cut off in a weird way… there’s still hope for this series though, as there is a 2011 remake of it! *gasp* This is more accurate to the manga, though since they want to catch up to where the other series ended, it’s been rushed. They’ve stopped updating however. The manga’s still good… for now. That updates every Wednesday or Thursday, though it is currently on hiatus.
- Fairy Tail: not a bad series. A lot of intense action and many touching stories. However, some scenes are more visual than I need to care about… it somewhat makes me want to not watch this series anymore… I question how the series is supposed to end as well… is the series over when Zeref is eliminated? Or is it when Natsu is eliminated? Hm. If there is no true “goal”, then this series can go on… forever… the anime updates every Friday at 7-8pm (PST) with English sub (though it is currently on hiatus since it’s been catching up to the manga). I began picking up the manga recently because the pace of the anime was slowed immensely with filler arcs.
- Avatar: The Last Airbender: an “anime” series that debuted in America. In other words, produced by Americans and the characters speak in English. There are many Chinese and Japanese references though. It really isn’t a bad series to look into.
- Legend of Korra: the sequel of Avatar: The Last Airbender was a pretty good series, but it was super, super rushed. Can’t blame them too much as the creators did not know they had enough going for them so they could do another series. Ah well. Although the series eventually picked up, it finished a bit disappointingly for me. You are warned haha.
